Tim planted Sovereign Grace Church in 2005. He currently divides his time between mentoring pastors and emerging leaders in various churches and denominations. Along with general pastoral responsibilities at Sovereign Grace, Tim also oversees the Men's Mentoring and Prayer ministries at the church. He and his wife Joanne have four adult children and a growing number of grandchildren.
He first joined Sovereign Grace Church as a pastoral intern, and was ordained as one of the pastors in September 2021. It brings him sweet joy as a pastor to regularly witness countless instances of God's grace in people's lives. Along with general pastoral responsibilities, Timon also oversees the Missions and Outreach ministries at the church.
Timon loves discovering new places with Joanne, relishes a good pizza, and enjoys karate (training and teaching). He's been on a long, futile quest to bake the perfect sourdough loaf. He and Joanne desire to one day plant a church among a people group who have yet to have the Bible in their native language.
Sovereign Grace Churches is a confessional family of churches. At the heart of our union is the truth of God’s Word that we believe, cherish, and proclaim together. While the Bible is our only infallible rule of faith and practice, we are also committed—and accountable—to a specific statement of faith that represents a summary of the teaching of Holy Scripture on key points of doctrine essential to the beliefs, conduct, and witness of our churches.
This first component of our Trinitarian mission statement starts with God the Father. We desire that our attitude toward God the Father be one of reverence and awe. We want to see the majesty of God in Scripture and be so affected by it that we are compelled to worship and praise His Name. This awe of our great God finds its center in the wonder of His grace that he has shown each of us in the gospel. Receiving His undeserved grace humbles us deeply and frees us to relate to others with humility.
We believe that Christ is the plot line of the entire Bible and every page reveals His glory and redemptive work. In response to that, God has called each believer to become a living letter that reveals Christ to others. We are to live in a way that Christ is seen in us and people are drawn to trust and worship Him. We believe all Christian growth is increasing conformity to Christ-likeness in our character and life. We believe our conversations with others are intended to reveal Christ and His gospel. We speak Christ and we live Christ. We do this with a profound sense of gratitude to Him because he has saved us from our sins…and this gratitude will never be exhausted.
We believe that without the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit, the Christian life is impossible. We earnestly pursue communion with the person of the Holy Spirit and the manifestation of his life and gifts among us and through each of us. We joyfully expect His power to be on display among us, chiefly through transforming us into Christ-likeness through His wonderful work of illumination and applying the gospel to our lives.
At Sovereign Grace Church, we believe that the songs that we sing together shouldn’t just express how we feel. They should express what we believe.
That is why we believe that the songs we sing together should not only help us express personal emotion, but help us grow into the kinds of personal emotions that honour God. We need songs that create the emotions we are meant to have, and there is no better way to do that than to declare truths about God, about Christ, and about the gospel.
Therefore, the songs that we sing tend to have these characteristics: (1) they contain strong biblical content through direct scriptural quotations or the use of biblical language; (2) they have a strong emphasis on instruction, not just on expression; and (3) they are God-centric rather than human-centric.
Prayer is always a dependant and sometimes a desperate cry to God for his intervention in our lives. We believe the work of Jesus Christ on the cross has opened wide the entryway to heaven and that God now welcomes us and delights to hear and answer our prayers!
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16
We believe that God’s Word, and especially His promises, are intended to fill us with faith and inform the content of our prayers to Him. We desire to grow in our collective praying together as a church so that one day we may truly function as a house of prayer for the nations.
It is commonly said that a church is not a building. A church is its people. At Sovereign Grace Church Toronto, we believe that the growth of our church depends on the growth of our members. Church is not a place where “average Christians” go to watch “super Christians” perform. Church is a people, each given unique gifts that are intended to be used for the common good of the church.
In today’s individualistic culture, it is easy to forget the communal nature of our faith. We forget that if our members suffer, the church suffers. If our members rejoice, the church rejoices. If our members fall into habitual patterns of sin, the church falls into spiritual darkness. And if our members are thriving through faith in Christ, holiness in conduct, and service for the good of others, the church thrives and grows. The health of our members dictates the health of our church.
We are so grateful that our faith journey is not made alone. The New Testament makes it very clear that we grow into Christ-likeness in community with others. The way we seek to practice this “community-growth” in our church is through the practice of Gospel-centered fellowship. In other words, we try to have interactions with each other that center on Christ and His redemptive work for us, and the massive practical implications that flow from that. We do this spontaneously as well as in a planned way (especially in our small groups). Speaking the gospel to ourselves, each other, and those who don’t know Christ is vital to our spiritual progress in the faith.
We believe that in order to have rich fellowship (edifying communion and relationship) with each other, we first need to experience communion with our God. Our fellowship with each other is the overflow of our fellowship with our God.
“That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1:3-4
At Sovereign Grace Church, we believe that God has called us to be a blessing to our community. We are called to “seek the welfare of the city” and to “pray to the LORD on its behalf” (Jer. 29:7), doing “good works” in such a way that others will then “give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). We want to bless our community through programs and outreaches that appeal to a wide spectrum of ethnicities, religions, and age groups, doing all in the name of Jesus Christ. The hope of all of our outreaches is to create opportunities to share the gospel, that many in our community would come to saving faith in Christ.
Our deep desire is to motivate and equip every member of our church to share Christ with their friends, family, co-workers and neighbours. This can only be done as we surrender our lives to Christ and are filled with the Holy Spirit, who alone gives us the compassion and boldness we need. We do this that Christ may be magnified and seen to be the glorious Saviour that he is!
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8
“The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14
Our Sunday Gathering is our most important meeting of the week. It is a time of special celebration as we sing praises to God for the wonderful forgiveness and salvation that He has given to us in Jesus His Son. We love to sing both traditional and contemporary God-centered music that focuses on what Christ has done for us on the cross!
We open the Bible week-by-week and receive teaching from its precious pages. Through expository preaching, we focus on sound doctrine, the proclamation of the gospel, and the implications of the gospel for our lives.
We love children and have a special program to teach and train them during the teaching portion of the service. Teachers and helpers instruct the children using God-centered truths that are applied to their lives. Our Kids’ Ministry is for young children up to age nine. We want our Kids’ Ministry to function as a supplement to parents’ spiritual involvement in their children’s lives, rather than as a replacement for it. We therefore train parents to be actively involved in training their children at home, where the biggest impact is made on a child’s life.
For those with infants two and under, we provide a fully-equipped nursery with qualified caregivers.
A one day course where you’ll form friendships in a small group as you learn about the biblical truths and values our church is built on. “Beginning the Journey” is also the first step to take if you would like to become a member of Sovereign Grace Church.
• You want to learn more about Sovereign Grace Church
• You have questions about our beliefs
• You are interested in our small groups
• You would like to explore church membership
Send an email to our church and we will give you details about when our next “Beginning the Journey” course will begin.
Ever since returning from church planting in Japan, Tim had been praying about an opportunity to plant another church, and this prayer meeting confirmed that God was now opening a door for a new church to be started. The next week this small group started meeting for prayer, singing, preaching and fellowship.
As God continued to lead more families to the church, a move from the living room became necessary. The group relocated to a community centre close by, then to a school in Vaughan, and then to King City, where the church rented from their friends at King Bible Church.
In 2016, Pastor Tim asked Josh Tong to take his place as the senior pastor of the church. Josh and his wife were members of the church, but he was working as a criminal lawyer in Toronto at the time. He had felt God’s call to ministry for several years but was waiting for that calling to be confirmed by the local church. After a season of counsel and prayer, Josh left his law practice, accepted the call, and was ordained and installed as the senior pastor in October 2016.
Pastor Tim remained on staff with Sovereign Grace, working part-time in teaching, mentoring, and occasional preaching. With his remaining time, he devoted himself to mentoring and counselling pastors serving in other local churches in Ontario, Quebec, and the United States.
In 2019, Sovereign Grace was approached by members of Springdale Christian Reformed Church about the possibility of relocating to Bradford and inheriting their church building. They were looking for a diverse, gospel-centered church that was equally committed to sound doctrine and self-sacrificing love. Following an eight-month process, the building was formally gifted to Sovereign Grace, and the church held its first service at its new location on February 2, 2020.
Sovereign Grace ordained its third pastor, Timon Lau, in September 2021. Since then, Pastor Timon has provided vital leadership in the areas of missions and evangelism, providing leadership to our summer music camp, our Karate ministry, and other outreaches to the community.
Sovereign Grace Churches is a global community of churches united in fellowship, mission and governance.
Over 35 years of producing Christ-exalting songs and training for the Church from our local churches.
